Most Detailed Image Of Earth Yet
TomDM writes "BBC News has a story on how scientists created the most accurate and detailed image of our planet yet, composing the image from satellite data, and adjusting it for the correct colours. "
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Look at the NASA MODIS site here if you want to actually see the pictures...
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"Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around." - They Might Be Giants, "We Want a Rock"
Nasa has some High Res versions here.
;)
Yes.. you too can download a 410MB TIFF of the earth
This goes to the directory of the newest images.
Anyone who wants to use this for xplanet (a very cool globe program for *nix) can. There's a nice 2400x1200 version floating around somewhere, that combined with Hans Ecke's scripts, will create just awsome images for your desktop.
As to why more isn't avialable for free, it costs money to create data like this. One way or another, someone needs to pay for it. If taxes aren't enough to provide hi-res images of the entire world, then that leaves private enterprise.
All the data, seperated into hemispheres and at 1 pixel = 1 km resolution (21600x21600 pixel images) is freely available from NASA at:
ftp://gloria2-f.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/stockli/
The images are split into versions with or without shaded topography and bathymetry, there's an ice cap map, a landcover map, topography/bathymetry maps, a cloud layer, and the city lights image.
They're in RAW format ("Open As.." in Photoshop).
Be prepared to wait a while for them to open.